freddie_mercury bellow touches most of it, and there are other issues: a friend of mine who lives abroad but maintains a mailing address in the us, has a yearly

freddie_mercury bellow touches most of it, and there are other issues: a friend of mine who lives abroad but maintains a mailing address in the us, has a yearly dance taking hours of calls, faxes and writing letters to explain that he does not need to file state taxes and that the state should not, in fact, put a lien on his assets. Also, the filing requirements (fbar and fatca in addition to a lot of stuff on the "regular" form) are insanely onerous. The tax code essentially assumes that any financial activity a US taxpayer does outside the US (even if that's where they reside) is done with the intention of tax evasion. When FBAR was created, it covered a few hundred to a few thousand presumed evaders. Now it covers millions to ten of millions with the same presumption of evasion.